ANENZEPHALIA Noehaem (Tesco) cd 17.98
This is quite possibly one of the scariest records we have ever heard. It's occasionally pretty, occasionally noisy, but always haunting and pregnant with the possibility of tragedy. Not sure how or why this particular record evokes such a strong reaction, but this most recent record by German ambient noise terrorists Anenzephalia pushes all of those buttons. Feeling like you're being followed, sensing you're about to die, knowing that there is nothing you can do about anything...powerful stuff.
First there are rumbling strings, reverberating in vast expanses of near silence. Like a twentieth century classical score to a horror movie, Lustmord plays Ligeti, with a dark sweeping romanticism tempered by slight unease. Soon, we're subsumed by a dense field of distorted crackle, over a simple militaristic clunk, like a mysterious stranger trudging up a flight of rickety stairs, while a super distorted voice buried in the shortwave struggles desperately to reach across from the other side. The record continues on in a similar fashion, a hair raising, lugubrious crawl through massive washes of low end throb, surrounded by a cracking field of interference, wth random distant clanks and clatter, all coalescing into a barely discernable rhythmic pulse, that mesmerises and leads you deeper. This sounds like the soundtrack to the scariest haunted house ever, but unlike normal 'haunted house records', Noehaem would have the neighborhood children having coronaries, soiling themselves, and sent soon afterwards to asylums to live out the rest of their catatonic days. This is some dark and doomy, creepy and dreary, and gorgeously frightening stuff.
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"

ANENZEPHALIA s/t (Death Factory) cd 17.98

ANEURYSM Quim (Slowleak) 12" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Four song debut 12" from Oakland's DJ Aneurysm. Side one features dark, aggressive digital destruction that would be right at home beside your DHR and Ambush records. Side two is more dance-y and melodic, with distorto beats and (unfortunately outdated and cheesy) spoken voice samples.

ANGANTYR Kampen Fortsatter (Eisenwald Tonschmiede) cd 14.98
Finally back in stock! Originally released on the same label that has brought us some of the most crucial underground black metal of the last few years (Xasthur, Nortt, The One, Blodulv, etc.), now reissued as a super swank, letter-pressed digipak, the debut release from this amazing Danish outfit, who specialize in that sound we love so much: ultra grim, ultra frigid, buzzing mostly midtempo black metal, a la Graveland, Nargaroth, Woodtemple, with high end fuzz-drone distortion, mosquito-like minor key melodies, simple galloping drum beats and that from-hell, paint peeling death rasp, all smeared into a buzzing mesmerizing blackened blur. Makes Sense when you realize this is the same guy who is also in Make A Change... Kill Yourself and Holmgang. Totally hypnotic and drone-y. Halfway through there's a gorgeous ten minutes of muted, melodic ambience, as dreamy and subtly beautiful as any of our favorite drone records. Followed by a truly bizarre melodramatic piano driven ballad, that's interrupted sporadically by ultraviolent squalls of sandblasting black metal buzz. Weird. And quite cool!
MPEG Stream: "Portene Abnes"
MPEG Stream: "Intethedens Larm"
MPEG Stream: "I Der Knaeler I Ynk"

ANGANTYR Sejr (Det Germanske Folket) cd 14.98
Record number two from this amazing Danish black metal one man band, the one man being the same fellow responsible for Make A Change... Kill Yourself and Holmgang. Ultra grim, ultra frigid, buzzing mostly midtempo black metal, with high end fuzz-drone distortion, mosquito-like minor key melodies, simple galloping drum beats and that from-hell, paint peeling death rasp, all smeared into a buzzing mesmerizing blackened blur.
Fucking awesome! Comes in a swank full color digipak.
MPEG Stream: "Portene Abnes"
MPEG Stream: "Intethedens Larm"
MPEG Stream: "I Der Knaeler I Ynk"

ANGANTYR / NASHEIM split (Northern Silence) cd 14.98
Those unfamiliar with the Danish black metal band Angantyr, might be surprised to find out that the man responsible for Angantyr, is the very same man who sonically slit his wrists and bled out the brilliantly depressive Make A ChangeŠ Kill Yourself discs, as well as being the dark soul who conjures up the grim old school buzz of Holmgang.
And while our black and broken hearts may belong to Make A ChangeŠ Kill Yourself, out head banging, spike encrusted, grim kvlt souls bow before the buzzing black Lord Angantyr. Here, Angantyr forms a sinister sonic alliance with mysterious Swedish duo Nasheim, and the two offer up some seriously awesome blasting and frosty grimnessŠ
Angantyr offer up three tracks, nearly a half hour of classic Scandinavian style old school black metal, furious bursts of scalding blackness, as well as loping midtempo Burzumic dirges, massive swaths of washed out buzz, harsh howled vocals, mournful minor key melodies draped over spikey blackened crags, plenty of MACKY's miserablism finds its way into Angantyr's mysterious black world which is a very good thing. The final track is live, and super lo-fi, but ultra intense, thrashing and brutal, you can almost hear the sweat and blood, and fire and brimstone. So great.
Nasheim counter with a single 25 minute track, an epic journey through a buzzing black soundworld, beginning with simple swooning folky strum, the tranquility shattered by a black wall of sound, a thrashing buzzing burst of gnarled guitars, hyperspeed drumming, and strange strangled howls, before retreating once again to a gentle little sonic glade, which is immediately laid flat by a colossal riff and an avalanche of pounding drum crunch, which gives way to a killer extended blackpsych jam, sounding almost like Opeth, with arpeggiated acoustic guitar under a relentless buzz, a killer melodic lead, and a loping waltz-like tempo. The rest of the record veers back and forth between variations of both, lurching at one point into a strange, almost Amrep sounding part, before resuming its epic journey, all soaring majestic guitar harmonies and chaotic drumming, finishing off with a stretch of almost Viking sounding blackness. It's sort of hard to describe such a massive and sprawling slab of sound in such a small space, needless to say, the black and buzz obsessed will not be disappointed. So many parts, so many styles and various shades of black, all deftly arranged into a single symphony of depressive buzz.
MPEG Stream: ANGANTYR "Arngrims Haevn"
MPEG Stream: NASHEIM "Sovande Mjod Vill Jag Tomma"

ANGANTYR / NASHEIM split (Northern Silence) lp 25.00
We listed the cd version of this amazing black metal match up a while back, and now we have the super limited vinyl version. Ultra deluxe like most Northern Silence releases, and limited enough that we probably won't be able to get more once these are gone...
Those unfamiliar with the Danish black metal band Angantyr, might be surprised to find out that the man responsible for Angantyr, is the very same man who sonically slit his wrists and bled out the brilliantly depressive Make A ChangeŠ Kill Yourself discs, as well as being the dark soul who conjures up the grim old school buzz of Holmgang.
And while our black and broken hearts may belong to Make A ChangeŠ Kill Yourself, out head banging, spike encrusted, grim kvlt souls bow before the buzzing black Lord Angantyr. Here, Angantyr forms a sinister sonic alliance with mysterious Swedish duo Nasheim, and the two offer up some seriously awesome blasting and frosty grimnessŠ
Angantyr offer up three tracks, nearly a half hour of classic Scandinavian style old school black metal, furious bursts of scalding blackness, as well as loping midtempo Burzumic dirges, massive swaths of washed out buzz, harsh howled vocals, mournful minor key melodies draped over spikey blackened crags, plenty of MACKY's miserablism finds its way into Angantyr's mysterious black world which is a very good thing. The final track is live, and super lo-fi, but ultra intense, thrashing and brutal, you can almost hear the sweat and blood, and fire and brimstone. So great.
Nasheim counter with a single 25 minute track, an epic journey through a buzzing black soundworld, beginning with simple swooning folky strum, the tranquility shattered by a black wall of sound, a thrashing buzzing burst of gnarled guitars, hyperspeed drumming, and strange strangled howls, before retreating once again to a gentle little sonic glade, which is immediately laid flat by a colossal riff and an avalanche of pounding drum crunch, which gives way to a killer extended blackpsych jam, sounding almost like Opeth, with arpeggiated acoustic guitar under a relentless buzz, a killer melodic lead, and a loping waltz-like tempo. The rest of the record veers back and forth between variations of both, lurching at one point into a strange, almost Amrep sounding part, before resuming its epic journey, all soaring majestic guitar harmonies and chaotic drumming, finishing off with a stretch of almost Viking sounding blackness. It's sort of hard to describe such a massive and sprawling slab of sound in such a small space, needless to say, the black and buzz obsessed will not be disappointed. So many parts, so many styles and various shades of black, all deftly arranged into a single symphony of depressive buzz.
MPEG Stream: ANGANTYR "Arngrims Haevn"
MPEG Stream: NASHEIM "Sovande Mjod Vill Jag Tomma"

ANGBASE #4 magazine 3.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
New issue of this wonderful little experimental/electronica 'zine out of Texas. Interviews and features this time include: Matmos (yay!), Carl Stone, Plastikman, Matthew Thomas, Thomas Brinkmann, Japan's Zero Gravity label, Germany's Kreisel label, heroin house, and lots more! There's even an essay by Terre Thaemlitz about his new Gary Numan piano interpretation project. A great issue, except maybe for the part where the editor calls AQ-faves The Champs awful crap. Except for that minor lapse in judgement, tho, this rules...

ANGEL Kalmukia (Editions Mego) cd 17.98
Oooh, moody. Ilpo Vaisanen of Pan Sonic and Dirk Dresselhaus (aka Schneider TM) have recorded as Angel before, exploring the realms of noise and drone with discs on the Bip-Hop and Oral labels, bringing in guest cellist Hildur Guonadottir for the latter. Now they're officially a trio, and offer up a fantastic third album, released on Editions Mego, where this four part, hour long, totally epic album fits in nicely alongside the digitaldoomdrone likes of O'Malley and Rehberg's KTL.
Kalmukia opens with the evocative "Bones In The Sand" which definitely has a desert-y feel, the wide open spaces, barren badlands. Desolation. Dunno about you, but it had us immediately thinking Earth (Hex-era and after Earth), with cavernous slide guitar riffs echoing forth across the wastes...
The tremulous electric humming of the title track is next, nearly 20 quietly mysterious minutes long, graced with droning cello on the edge of feedback. The creepy loveliness continues on through "Effect Of Discovery", which builds up into a shimmering drone laced with metallic electronic whip-cracks and waverings. Full on distorted rumble is kept in reserve, hinted at throughout the thick buzzing beauty of album-closer "Aftermath: The Mutation", which is also filled with delicate percussive chimings and some of this album's most melodic moments.
Packaged all fancy-like in an oversized rectangular sleeve, this is definitely one that fans of the most abstract/ambient side of Southern Lord's output (Oren Ambarchi for instance) should appreciate, along with those into Pan Sonic, KTL, etc.
Satan was an angel, once, too.
MPEG Stream: "Bones In The Sand"
MPEG Stream: "Aftermath: The Mutation"

ANGEL & HILDUR GUDNADOTTIR In Transmediale (Oral) cd 16.98
Angel is the work of Pan Sonic's Ilpo Vaisanen and Dirk Dresselhaus (aka Schneider TM); and Hildur Gudnadottir is an Icelandic cellist whose resume is dotted with numerous collaborative projects through the Reykjavik based arts collective Kitchen Motors. Back in 2004, the three musicians collaborated at the Club Transmediale in Berlin, sparking not only this album but also an ongoing collaboration between Pan Sonic and Gudnadottir. It's Gudnadottir's cello that takes the center stage on this guttural drone album of languorous acoustic scrapings and sustained monotone, with the two other gentlemen augmenting the cello drones with Kosmische electronic sweeps, nervous sinewave aggregates, and bellowing gasps of noise.
MPEG Stream: "In Transmediale (excerpt 1) "
MPEG Stream: "In Transmediale (excerpt 2) "

ANGEL 'IN HEAVY SYRUP IV (Monotremata Records) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yay! The welcome return of this great all-girl Japanese psych band. Now a power trio, Angel 'In Heavy Syrup still produce the beautiful, trippy sounds that made their previous three discs AQ-faves. Guitar-heavy psych rock, often evoking triumphant, epic soundtrack themes to Western movies, but with delicate, lovely vocals drifting into the mix. Hopefully this release means that the band will be coming to the States to play some shows again, sometime soon. Recommended.

ANGEL EYES ...And For A Roof A Sky Full Of Stars (Underground Communique) cd ep 6.98
Another awesome sonic document from Angel Eyes, one of our favorite of the new breed of metallic post rock outfits, a la Pelican, Isis, Minsk, Conifer etc...
This latest two song ep, gives us more of what we loved about their debut Something To Do With Death, long (two tracks that sound like movements of a bigger whole, one 16+ minutes, the other 10 minutes) slow building epics, spacious and expansive, dark brooding drifts that grow into roiling crashing chaotic heaviness. Whereas a lot of these sorts of band seem to have begun drifting one way or the other, ditching much of the metal in favor of a more ambient dark post rock sound, or alternately ditching a lot of the atmospherics and getting more and more metal, these guys still manage to deftly combine the two. The slow builds are super intense, gorgeously shimmering, the guitars fuzzy blurs, the drums a distant shuffle, the heavy parts are HEAVY, the guitars churning and downtuned and distorted, the vocals an anguished metallic wail, but even when Angel Eyes are at their heaviest, their sound is still streaked with gorgeous melodies, and sweeping cinematic heft, like Neurosis scoring the denouement of some amazing epic adventure film, it's almost impossible to not envision huge walls of flame engulfing whole cities, or a skyline gradually collapsing, or a planet crumbling and drifting apart, so totally evocative and intense and moody and emotional, just the way it should be. And the slow parts are gorgeous, brooding and darkly dreamy, a bit of Morricone twang, a bit of Calexico, a bit of Scenic, Godspeed of course, the various spidery melodies seeming to transform and become entangled before our very eyes, like the soundtrack to a time lapse film of the end of the world.
The second 'movement' is the more intense, like a more metal Explosions In The Sky, only allowing the listener a few brief respites between soaring sonic dramatics, the guitars keening and wailing over shimmering fields of sizzling cymbals and dense squalls of tribal pound, the melodies haunting and emotional, all woven into the roiling metallic swirl, eventually fading into a droning whirring fade out...
Packaged in a cool fold over ecopak, all hand silkscreened, the lyrics printed on the inside.
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 1"

ANGEL EYES Something To Do With Death (Underground Communique) cd 9.98
Angel Eyes are another band ready to make their mark in the blossoming post rock / sludge metal scene, and manage to do just that with Something To Do With Death, making -that- sound completely their own. So much so that upon hearing this disc we freaked out and immediately got in touch with the label and got a bunch of copies for the store. The general vibe is one we've come to love, the slow building brooding moodiness, a creeping post rock slow burn, minor key guitar, distant droney shimmer, simple martial percussion, building in intensity, the opening track could be Mogwai or Godspeed, with its understated majesty and about-to-explode urgency. Track two, the awesomely titled "By The Time He Was My Age, Orson Welles Had Made Citizen Kane", starts off with more loping post rockiness, but quickly lurches into some seriously fierce Neurosisy sludge, but within the roiling churning downtuned brutality, lurks plenty of mournful melody and subtle sonic shadings. Making this more than just heavy, more a an emotionally loaded ferocity. In fact each song is a expansive and beautifully convoluted journey, from massive pummel, to dreamy shuffle, to tribal ambience, to blown out guitarnoise and back again. So fucking good. Obviously, anyone who digs Isis, Pelican, Godspeed, Tides, Conifer, Minsk, Mouth Of The Architect, Rosetta, Minsk or any of the current crop of postrockmetal outfits NEEDS THIS NOW!
MPEG Stream: "Two Too Many"
MPEG Stream: "By The Time He Was My Age, Orson Welles Had Made Citizen Kane"

ANGEL HAIR Pregnant With The Senior Class (Gravity) cd 9.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Everything this band ever recorded, before they became the celebrated VSS.

ANGEL IN HEAVY SYRUP The Very Best Of... (Alchemy) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

ANGELA VALID This Book's On Fire (World In Winter) cd 14.98
Been wanting to list this Sheffield UK band's debut four-song ep for a while now, finally got a few in stock so here goes... Angela Valid (name of band, not a person) plays improv instrumentals, a skittery post-rock stitching together of all kinds of glitch and drone, whirring and clatter and feedback, dealt out with guitars, drums, electronics (synths, drum machines, effects...) and violin. Angela Valid's music is very textural, displaying both caution and conviction. We're reminded of the likes of This Heat. Tarentel. Sinistri. A (the Italian band A). Radian. Or, Tortoise + Wolf Eyes as someone else has suggested. At times it's like there's someone building something in the next room, or doing construction work upstairs, banging tools about. But at the same time there's constant jazzy rhythmics buried beneath it all as well. If you like this sort of stuff (we sure do) these four tracks are all very satisfying and leave us wanting to hear more...
MPEG Stream: "Terry's Incantation"
MPEG Stream: "Ocean Ceiling"

ANGELBLOOD Labia Minora (Captain Trip / Printed Matter, Inc.) cd 14.98
We have to admit that Angelblood intrigued us just a little bit more back when we thought they were actually a group made up of some Shaggs-like, weird teenage girls from Texas into paganism, making their own brand of fucked up psychedeli-metal, somewhere between Amon Duul and The Need. However, that was too good to be true. How would Japanese label Captain Trip ever have discovered them? As was later revealed, Angelblood actually have an (admittedly cool) hipster pedigree, featuring both NYC artist Rita Ackerman and No Neck Blues Band drummer David Nuss among others. And, on this, their third cd (kind of an mini-album, it has a 25 minute running time) they are joined by guitarist Mick Barr, the guy from Crom Tech and Orthrelm and others. His squiggly speed-metal guitar stylings are just another weird flavor stirred into Angelblood's dark brew, making them even more quirkily metal (and The Need-like) than before.
MPEG Stream: "Bellowed From Risen"
MPEG Stream: "Fire On The Mountain"

ANGELBLOOD Mambo Mange (Locust) lp 17.98
It's been a while since we've heard from mysterious tribal, psychedelic, what-the-fuck outsider metal outfit Angelblood. But they've returned, with a vinyl only blast of damaged metallic skree that sounds as fucked up and tripped out as ever.
When we first heard Angelblood, we assumed, because of their sound, and the fact that their record was a Japanese import, that they were some mysterious all girl Japanese metal troupe. We only later discovered that Angelblood was in fact Dave Nuss from the No Neck Blues Band and artist/musician Rita Ackerman. While some of the mystery was gone, it wasn't enough to stop us from diggin their crazy sound.
So now here we are years later, with a brand new missive from Angelblood, a stumbling, chaotic, drug addled, metallic transmission from some weird otherworld, that produces feral voiced majestic metal. Or whatever this stuff is. It's definitely metal, at least some of the time, although it spends a lot of time sprawled out in strange stumbling streaks of droning ambience, the vocals, a Yoko Ono-ish wail, washing over the shimmering dronescapes in the background.
The opener is a free rock psychedelic trip out, the guitar spending more time swirling and humming than actually riffing, the vocals mewling and howling, the guitars gradually becoming more and more riff-like, eventually launching into some eighties style metal riffing, but the metallic vibe is wrapped around an ethereal drift, and strange loping groove, that eventually falls to pieces, the vocals dancing wildly atop an avalanche of drums and crumbling guitars.
The second track is where things get heavy. As in heeeeavy man. A blown out proto metal riff looped hypnoticall beneath the wild banshee wails, and over the course of the track swinging from that metal riffing, to a more proggy rhythmic workout. Minus the vocals this could be some lost Italian hard rock classic, but the vocals turn it into some insane avant psychmental freakout.
Our favorite track is probably "Edward's Call", a damged off kilter take on power metal, with some killer grinding start stop riffage, freaky leads, super convoluted song structures and more wild unhinged vocalizing.
The whole record is so haunting and tripped out, heavy and cracked, catchy and insane. Imagine Hammers Of Misfortune if they got lost in some massive black forest, eventually went feral and were adopted by a tribe of Yeti's, the tribe's forest rituals eventually seeping into the metal psyches of the band. Years later, the bearded and filthy Hammers begin making sounds, a primal primitive forest metal band, the tales of their tribe told in wails and whoops and hollers, all over a stumbling metallic ritual. That's sort of what this sounds like. But not quiteŠ
Needless to say, this is essential listening for outsider metal freaks, and even prog nerds and weirdo krautrockers with a taste for the truly demented might be able to get into Angelblood's far out psychmetal damage. Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Edward's Call"
MPEG Stream: "Bellowed From Risen"

ANGELBLOOD Masses Of The Daggers (Captain Trip) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is the second album from NYC-based female rock trio Angelblood (featuring ultrachic artist Rita Ackermann and fashion designer Jess Holzworth). Musical styles on "Masses Of The Daggers" vary from riff-laden rockers (topped off with falsetto vocals ala The Need) to drunken piano ballads to blood curdling lo-fi doom rock. That's right, if you're at all familiar with their previous disc (also on Japanese psychedelic label Captain Trip), all the dark forest imagery and death metal fontography that threw you off suddenly makes sense now. Either Angelblood decided to live up to their cover art and band name/logo or they've really gotten into The Need, or both. Where their first disc attempted some sort of Amon Duul meets the Shaggs synthesis, this one is suddenly, brutally METAL: noisy and heavy and evil. Yet, the naive (?) psych charm of their debut, however, remains and is one of the many facets of Angelblood that we find so fascinating. Whatever the case, "Masses of the Daggers" is a pleasant surprise and is fucking awesome in its own right.
RealAudio clip: "Daggers"
RealAudio clip: "Rat-Tail"
RealAudio clip: "Terrorist Bang Bang"

ANGELBLOOD s/t (Captain Trip) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Angelblood, with their vaguely black metal name and packaging (the gothic logo/typeface, forest images), immediately confuse. They are actually an all-girl trio of primitive psych jammers from Texas! Seemingly inspired by Amon Duul I, Yahowah 13, and the No Neck Blues Band (well, the latter two have Captain Trip releases that are featured on this disc's obi!), it does make sense that the Japanese kraut/psych worshippers at Captain Trip HQ would want to put this out, although how Angelblood got hooked up with them is a story I'd like to hear (well, artist Rita Ackermann is a member of the trio, so maybe it was her connections that did it). Considered by Forced Exposure to be "easily the most vital non-reissue release from Captain Trip to date." Dunno about that, but this does have a Shaggs-on-acid sort of charm, as the label suggests.

ANGELIC PROCESS, THE ...And Your Blood Is Full Of Honey (Decaying Sun) cd ep 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The return of one of our favorite purveyors of blissed out metallic dream doom, The Angelic Process. There is a brand new album on Profound Lore, which we do have in stock, so feel free to order that one too. We'll review that one on the next list. But we figured we oughta list this one first. ...And Your Blood Is Full Of Honey was originally released on Crucial Blast way back in 2001, in a run so limited we never even saw one. Now the band has decided to reissue all their old recordings and release them on their own Decaying Sun label, starting with this one...
The Angelic Process' M.O. was much the same here as on the incredible Coma Waering, released on Paradigms back in 2006, slow burning metallic drone epics, the guitars effulgent and blown out, woven into huge washes of dreamy bliss, over simple machinelike rhythms, with soaring emotional vocals buried and lost in thick ropy swells of sound. Everything run through some sort of amazing vacuum cleaner effect that wraps all the sounds in thick swirls of foggy whir. It's like M83 and My Bloody Valentine And Jesu blended up and mixed with some Godflesh and Neurosis, a gorgeously monstrous plodding doom, smeared into blackened shadows that somehow glow warmly from within. It's not really metal although it is most definitely heavy, it's not really pop either, even though there are hooks galore buried within the murk, it's not industrial, although it is intense and mechanical sounding at times, and it's not really doom, although it is heavy and sooooo sloooooow. It's somehow all of those things at once, yet none of those things, a constantly mutating sound that manages to also mix in tranquil ambient interludes, drawn out stretches of keening guitar and smoldering drone, and wild bursts of full on amp crushing, speaker melting noise. It's like the sonic equivalent of being doused in molten metal, every track a thick, viscous flow of sound, pouring from the speakers in black torrents, melting everything within reach, turning all to ash. So good. 
Includes two bonus tracks not on the original releases. Packaged in slimline cases, with full color artwork, professionally printed cd-r's, each one signed by both members of the band! Probably limited, these things always seem to be, so even though we got a bunch, not sure how long they'll be around...
MPEG Stream: "Welcome To Oblivion"
MPEG Stream: "...And Your Blood Is Full Of Honey"

ANGELIC PROCESS, THE Coma Waering (Paradigms) cd 12.98
A new slab of glacial metallic beauty from Paradigms, one of our new favorite labels. In the past, they've brought us the drone dirge of Hjarnidaudi (an aQ Record Of The Week), the chamber gloom of Amber Asylum, the cult black metal of Throne Of Katarsis, the druggy prog of Blueprint Human Being, and now two new releases, a grim slab of icy pagan Canadian black metal from Utlagr (reviewed elsewhere on this list) and this, the newest release from dirge doomists the Angelic Process.
Described as slow motion doom drone, The Angelic Process are so much more. This is not just some series of cromagnon metal riffs slowed down and turned into 'art', nor is it a monochromatic wash of rumble and whir, not that there's anything wrong with that, we love that stuff, but the Angelic Process are more of a proper band, with songs, vocals, drums, parts, choruses, verses, all that normal band stuff. They craft simple, swoonsome dream rock, like M83 or Spacemen 3 or Cyann & Ben, albeit a lot more dark and ominous, but it's what they do with that rock, with those songs, that makes this record so special. And so mind meltingly heavy. Each of these songs is buried under a sea of warm sonic swirl. Where a normal band would kick on a distortion pedal for the chorus, The Angelic Process kick on a thousand, and it sounds like they maybe also have 30 or 40 extra guitarists standing at attention just waiting to dump a monstrous mass of churning thick blown out guitar fuzz all over everything. Closer reference points might be Jesu or My Bloody Valentine. The songs are moody plods, droney dirges, but within these songs, and beneath all the murk and fuzz and buzz, there are buried epic swells, heart rending melodies, soaring beneath the gauze and haze, it's like Low or Godspeed being backed up by Earth, performing live with Glenn Branca's guitar orchestra and produced by the Teenage Filmstars. Or maybe Swans if they made a record for French blisspop label Gooom. One of those extremely rare records that manages to be as breathtakingly lovely as it is crushingly heavy. The best blown out blissed out space rock drone guitar record since Loveless! SO RECOMMENDED!
Limited to 750 copies, packaged in a mini lp style sleeve wrapped in a hand stamped brown paper outer sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "My Blood Still Whispers"
MPEG Stream: "The Sun In Braids"
MPEG Stream: "Crippled Healing"

ANGELIC PROCESS, THE We All Die Laughing (Decaying Sun) cd ep 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We went from discovering what we believed to be the only recording from this Southern blissed out doomdrone duo, to suddenly being inundated with a bunch of recordings, old AND new. We're not complaining, cuz if you're anything like us, you can NOT get enough of this sort of My Bloody Valentine metal, epic swaths of blown out beautiful heaviness that drifts and shimmers as much as it pounds and pummels. 
It's hard to know what to say about We All Die Laughing that we haven't already said about all of the other Angelic Process records, if you're a fan of stuff like Jesu, Nadja, Hjarnidaudi, odds are you're already hip to the gorgeous sounds of the Angelic Process. In iTunes, the genre comes up as 'new age' which in a way it sort of is, but it's OUR sort of new age, blissy and dreamy and washed out and soft focus and blurry and abstract, but also heavy as fuck, massive and crushing and completely overwhelmingly intense. We All Die Laughing is no exception, from the first track, which begins with a simple machinelike rhythm, and swirling ambient swells, a barely there guitar, before an avalanche of guitars drops from above, obliterating everything, somehow at once dense and heavy, yet so completely beautiful and packed with melody. Which is pretty much how the whole record stacks up, there are long stretches of low end shimmer, and simple tribal drumming, bits of ambient whir and fragmented melodies, but these are just breathers between the crushing black holes of sound, the million vacuum cleaners tuned to 'E' roar of their impossibly heavy sonic crush. You can read more of our AP gushing in any of the other reviews, but what more do we need to say, if you want it heavy, and want it beautiful, it really doesn't get more beautifully heavy than the Angelic Process. 
Packaged in slimline cases, with full color artwork, professionally printed cd-r's, each one signed by both members of the band! 
MPEG Stream: "We All Die Laughing"
MPEG Stream: "Bleedbeliever"

ANGELIC PROCESS, THE Weighing Souls With Sand (Profound Lore) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What can we say that we haven't already said about this dynamic dronedirgedoom duo? Seriously, have a look at any of the other reviews we've written about The Angelic Process, and see us gush like crazy, what's not to love? Gorgeous swirling black ambience, massive crushing metallic pummel, soaring majestic melodies, the sound somehow heavy and brutal, but washed out and gauzy, a thick My Bloody Valentine haze draped over everything, voices drift amidst the buzz like paper angels dropped into a roaring fire. Everything glistening and sparkling, glimmering and shimmering, then roaring and grinding and washing over you like some suffocating black tide. 
All of their records are fantastic, each feels and sounds like a continuation of the one before it. As if they were all movements in some metallic black hole symphony, with each record, each movement, offering up its own subtle twist on the AP's black buzzing sound world. This latest might be the most sonically varied of the bunch. It's been out for a while now, but we had been working our way through the older titles first.
The overall sound like the others is warped and warbly, a slow crawl though an alien world, like every note and melody is being twisted and bent, tangled up into shapes that confuse and confound, the distortion so thick and viscous it seems to be able to alter the natural order, to use gravity as just another effect, ton-of-bricks downtuned guitars don't fall forward like an avalanche, they seem to drift like billowy black clouds somehow, slabs of low end fall upward, guitars slither in reverse, vocals twist inside out, a gorgeous multidimensional swirl of sound, that occasionally coalesces into a roiling propulsive thunderstorm of blissed out doom. Songs grow from whispers into roars, a black doom Godspeed, but the heavy parts aren't just heavy, they're unearthly, unreal, melodies are pulled apart into sparkling notes that spin and soar, dancing atop a churning miasma of crush and crunch. The sound is an impossible blend of light and dark, evil and good, beauty and utter and complete horror. Like Katatonia broadcast through a wall of clothes dryers, doom metal performed by a symphony of leaf blowers tuned to drop-D, pop songs composed using cement mixers filled with gold bricks, a DJ spinning My Bloody Valentine over diSEMBOWELMENT, Winter remixed by Tim Hecker, all nestled amidst dreamy drifts of hushed shimmer and soft focus ambience.
We could go on and on and on and on and on and on.... needless to say, an absolutely essential slab of blissed out dreamdronedoooooooooooooooooooooooooom...
MPEG Stream: "The Promise Of Snakes"
MPEG Stream: "Million Year Summer"
MPEG Stream: "The Resonance Of Goodbye"

ANGELIC PROCESS, THE Weighing Souls With Sand (Senor Hernandez / Roadburn) 2lp 26.00
The sadly now defunct dronedoombliss duo's swansong, available as a super deluxe double lp for a very limited time...
What can we say that we haven't already said about this dynamic dronedirgedoom duo? Seriously, have a look at any of the other reviews we've written about The Angelic Process, and see us gush like crazy, what's not to love? Gorgeous swirling black ambience, massive crushing metallic pummel, soaring majestic melodies, the sound somehow heavy and brutal, but washed out and gauzy, a thick My Bloody Valentine haze draped over everything, voices drift amidst the buzz like paper angels dropped into a roaring fire. Everything glistening and sparkling, glimmering and shimmering, then roaring and grinding and washing over you like some suffocating black tide. 
All of their records are fantastic, each feels and sounds like a continuation of the one before it. As if they were all movements in some metallic black hole symphony, with each record, each movement, offering up its own subtle twist on the AP's black buzzing sound world. This latest might be the most sonically varied of the bunch. It's been out for a while now, but we had been working our way through the older titles first.
The overall sound like the others is warped and warbly, a slow crawl though an alien world, like every note and melody is being twisted and bent, tangled up into shapes that confuse and confound, the distortion so thick and viscous it seems to be able to alter the natural order, to use gravity as just another effect, ton-of-bricks downtuned guitars don't fall forward like an avalanche, they seem to drift like billowy black clouds somehow, slabs of low end fall upward, guitars slither in reverse, vocals twist inside out, a gorgeous multidimensional swirl of sound, that occasionally coalesces into a roiling propulsive thunderstorm of blissed out doom. Songs grow from whispers into roars, a black doom Godspeed, but the heavy parts aren't just heavy, they're unearthly, unreal, melodies are pulled apart into sparkling notes that spin and soar, dancing atop a churning miasma of crush and crunch. The sound is an impossible blend of light and dark, evil and good, beauty and utter and complete horror. Like Katatonia broadcast through a wall of clothes dryers, doom metal performed by a symphony of leaf blowers tuned to drop-D, pop songs composed using cement mixers filled with gold bricks, a DJ spinning My Bloody Valentine over diSEMBOWELMENT, Winter remixed by Tim Hecker, all nestled amidst dreamy drifts of hushed shimmer and soft focus ambience.
We could go on and on and on and on and on and on.... needless to say, an absolutely essential slab of blissed out dreamdronedoooooooooooooooooooooooooom...
MPEG Stream: "The Promise Of Snakes"
MPEG Stream: "Million Year Summer"
MPEG Stream: "The Resonance Of Goodbye"

ANGELS OF LIGHT How I Loved You (Young God) cd 14.98
A few years back, Michael Gira dissolved the Swans, and effectively split his band's aesthetic in two, with the soiled ambient project Body Lovers / Body Haters on one side, and the orchestrated songs of Angels of Light on the other. "How I Loved You" is the second Angels of Light album and, as could be gathered from the title, is a collection of love songs. The album begins speaking of love with elation, as in "Evangeline," where Gira pleads to his object of desire with the wistful innocence of a school boy. The following "Untitled Love Song" is a strolling duet between Gira and ex-Pain Teen's singer Bliss Blood, both of whom seem uncharacteristically full of sweetness and light. With those being the most benevolent images of love that he has to offer, Gira then guides the album down a steep slope of sexual dependency, perverse lusts, and a gristled despair in which Gira's body continuously betrays his mind's wishes to never fuck again.
From here on, each track from "How I Loved You" begins with a simple languid melody that could easily be mistaken for anything from the recent Low record but steadily builds in complexity, driving into deeper, darker, and more intense realms.
RealAudio clip: "Evangeline"
RealAudio clip: "New City Of The Future"
RealAudio clip: "My Suicide"

ANGELS OF LIGHT How I Loved You (Important / Young God) lp 32.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Reissued on ultra limited vinyl! Here's what we had to say about the cd:
A few years back, Michael Gira dissolved the Swans, and effectively split his band's aesthetic in two, with the soiled ambient project Body Lovers / Body Haters on one side, and the orchestrated songs of Angels of Light on the other. "How I Loved You" is the second Angels of Light album and, as could be gathered from the title, is a collection of love songs. The album begins speaking of love with elation, as in "Evangeline," where Gira pleads to his object of desire with the wistful innocence of a school boy. The following "Untitled Love Song" is a strolling duet between Gira and ex-Pain Teen's singer Bliss Blood, both of whom seem uncharacteristically full of sweetness and light. With those being the most benevolent images of love that he has to offer, Gira then guides the album down a steep slope of sexual dependency, perverse lusts, and a gristled despair in which Gira's body continuously betrays his mind's wishes to never fuck again.
From there on, each track from "How I Loved You" begins with a simple languid melody that could easily be mistaken for anything from the recent Low record but steadily builds in complexity, driving into deeper, darker, and more intense realms. So nice!

ANGELS OF LIGHT New Mother (Young God) cd 14.98
Since the dissolution of the Swans, Michael Gira released two albums of haunting psychoacoustic music as The Body Lovers and The Body Haters... and apparently given up writing songs. Fortunately, this hiatus was merely temporary, as Gira delivers a new collection of acoustic songs as The Angels of Light. At times lush in orchestral swells of strings and vibraphone, at others angular and tense... quite good throughout.

ANGELS OF LIGHT New Mother (Broken Sparrow / Important) 2lp 28.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now on vinyl! Right after the dissolution of Swans in 1997, Michael Gira released two albums of haunting psychoacoustic music as The Body Lovers and The Body Haters, and apparently gave up writing songs. Fortunately, this hiatus was merely temporary, as Gira delivers a new collection of acoustic guitar based songs as The Angels of Light. At times lush in orchestral swells of strings and vibraphone, at others angular and tense, New Mother is quite good indeed. Lovely reissued as double LP by Broken Sparrow in conjunction with Important Records and limited to 500 on black vinyl.

ANGELS OF LIGHT Sing "Other People" (Young God) cd 14.98
The fourth album from Michael Gira's Angels Of Light is the most easily digestible album that Gira has produced to date with pleasant folk-rock orchestrations built from Gira's simple acoustic guitar structures and unmistakably bold baritone delivery. Having heard that his protege Devendra Banhart has left Gira's Young God Records for greener pastures, it's hard not to hear a sense of bitterness in Gira's delivery of "The Kid Is Already Breaking;" similarly, most of songs tend to be portraits of specific people in Gira's life. In comparison, most of the songs that Gira wrote for the Swans dealt with the weighty metaphors of God, power, money, and sex, where as the songs of Other People are much more personal and fragile. Guest appearances from Gira's newly discovered acid-folk collective, Akron/Family.
MPEG Stream: "Lena's Song"
MPEG Stream: "The Kid Is Already Breaking"

ANGELS OF LIGHT We Are Him (Young God) cd 14.98
As harrowing and depressive yet magical and luminous as ever, Michael Gira returns with his fourth proper Angels Of Light record, We Are Him. Recorded with his buddies the Akron Family, the overall feeling of this record is hypnotic and repetitive... It's tough for us to write an objective review, we're basically really big Michael Gira fans and have dug most everything he's done. He always manages to get awesome musicians, and his records sound really great, always. That being said, We Are Him is definitely different from all his other releases, maybe a little more angular rhythmically speaking, a bit more prog, even jangly almost at times. One of our favorite elements of Gira's music is most definitely his lyrics. They have a kind of universal quality, dealing with more existential themes, and less of personal emotional type stuff, which is rare in the world of song-writing. Akron Family are amazing as well and their unique musical contributions have much to do with the unique sound of the record. Stark and a bit abstract, stripped down, but still lush, and of course haunting and beautiful. And just really fucking great. Another great album in a long line of great albums. If you liked the other Angels Of Light albums, you'll probably dig this one too. It's certainly a development, and there are lots of subtle differences, but it manages to maintain the eternal quality of all Gira's work. Yeah, it's really beautiful, there are awesome brass parts too, the lyrics rule, the textures are evocative, GREAT ALBUM! That's all we need to say.
MPEG Stream: "My Brother's Man"
MPEG Stream: "We Are Him"

ANGELS OF LIGHT & AKRON / FAMILY s/t (Young God) cd 14.98

ANGELS OF LIGHT, THE Everything Is Good Here / Please Come Home (Young God) cd 14.98
With the third Angels Of Light album "Everything Is Good Here / Please Come Home," Michael Gira has succeeded in severing the major ties to his former Swans, a band which admittedly underwent several distinct stylistic shifts in its 15 year lifespan. A few strands obviously remain, as Gira's voice is still central to his music, a proud and defiant baritone responding to the catastrophes of Gira's world, self-created or otherwise. Beyond his voice, fleeting reflections of the hypno-rock grooves of Swans' mid period albums "White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity" and "Love Of Life" manifest themselves in the self-described 'lonesome angry cowboy productions' of The Angels Of Light. As powerful and magnificent as the Swans were in the '80s and '90s, the suffocating abjection of those albums rendered them a climactic exaggeration of spectacle and theatricality. Don't get me wrong, "Filth" and "Children Of God" are still two of my most treasured (if that's the right word) albums. It's just that in Angels Of Light, Gira has eased up on some of the control tactics and allowed for his emotional core to speak unrestrained by the artistry of his productions. While continuing to express his aggression and rage, he has recognized the need to expose his weaknesses and his ignorance. For in those human traits, there is the possibility of profound beauty and tender wisdom. And I think it's fair to say that he's found an honest way of articulating those emotions on this album. At the same time, Gira allows for himself to take a backseat on occasion to the Angels Of Light, the band that he happens to be in. Throughout "Everything Is Good Here..." elliptical patterns of post-country / western motifs cycle and flutter with the motorik hypnosis of German krautrock. Another incredible, dignified release from M. Gira.
RealAudio clip: "All Souls' Rising"
RealAudio clip: "Nations"
RealAudio clip: "Rose Of Los Angeles"

ANGER, KENNETH The Films Of Kenneth Anger: Volume One (Fantoma) dvd 24.00
Such a momentous occasion! Renegade American filmmaker and (oc)cult figure Kenneth Anger's early works have finally been released on dvd! Fans and disciples, you need squint through fuzzy faded VHS and 16mm copies no more. The five shorts were meticulously restored by the UCLA Film Archive, and the dvd features crisp, high definition transfers. Anger's films haven't looked this vivid in decades. Stunning! Works include Anger's debut Fireworks (a sailor fantasy / nightmare gay cinema classic from 1947); Puce Moment (a 1949 short which exudes the absolutely giddy glamour of early Hollywood); Rabbit Moon (a mesmerizing black and white dream from 1950) - the original 16-minute long version could easily be imagined as an alternate-universe mime scene from Marcel Carne's 1945 cinematic masterpiece Children Of Paradise; the mystical garden stroll of Eaux D'Artifice (1953); and last but not least Inauguration Of The Pleasure Dome (dripping with garish colors and bizarre bacchanalia, this film from 1954 was Anger's filmic launch point into the rites and mysticism of Aleister Crowley).
The dvd extras include extensive, frank commentary by Anger and rare outtakes from Rabbit's Moon. Indeed, Anger has long been known to go in and tweak his films years after their 'completion' -- changing music, re-editing scenes, adding, subtracting. Ardent, eagle-eyed fans will probably notice a few such cases on this dvd. And if that's not enough for you, there's also a big 48-page book filled with rare photos, stills, storyboard sketches, and an introduction penned by Martin Scorsese.

ANGER, KENNETH The Films of Kenneth Anger: Volume Two (Fantoma) dvd 27.00
As varied as they can be, Kenneth Anger's films are pretty unmistakable. This Volume Two dvd set is just as stunning as its predecessor. The restorations are immaculate, the soundtrack vibrant. Details pop out that we were never able to distinguish on our old grainy vhs dubs. From the seemingly random assemblage of the Technicolor hued magickal aesthetics as seen in 1969's Invocation Of My Demon Brother (which incorporated pieces of an aborted version of his film Lucifer Rising as well as footage of a staged ritual deeply inspired by Anger's hero Aleister Crowley and featuring a cameo by Anton LaVey and a Moog synth soundtrack by Mick Jagger) to the pastel powder puffed homoerotic hotrod dream of 1965's Kustom Kar Kommandos to the bikers'n'black leather homoerotic motorcycle club dream of 1964's Scorpio Rising (shot like a documentary, it captures the period's dark visceral energies, the cultural and consciousness explosion, the social rebellion -- arguably the beginnings of protopunk); from the fiery Egyptian golden luminescence of 1981's Lucifer Rising (complete with soundtrack composed and recorded by Bobby Beausoliel in his prison cell) to the 1979 version of Rabbit Moon with its unexpectedly well-suited rock song soundtrack (an earlier version appeared on Vol.1)... Really, what's not to drool over? Through Anger's gaze objects, symbols, songs and people are fetishized to an intoxicating state. Even to those without an interest in avantgarde film, a schooling in esoteric knowledge, or an affinity with fringe communities, the images are nothing short of spellbinding, especially taking into consideration the time period in which they were made. The lone disappointment we found was in Anger's commentaries which come across as surprisingly uninspired, often vague and less than informative. Best to let the films speak for themselves -- a delicious visual feast!

ANGLE OF REPOSE My Escaping Shoes (In Your Eardrums) cd-r 5.98
Angle Of Repose's My Escaping Shoes is comprised of a dozen ominous, looming downtempo hip hop tracks laced with samples of dialogue, horns and a little flute too -- very much in the DJ Shadow Endtroducing camp. If there's to be any escaping to be done by this Bay Area artist, it'll be a sneaky creep through the shadows, not a mad frenzied run-for-it. Limited pressing of 100.
MPEG Stream: "Children Of Phoebus"
MPEG Stream: "The Phalanx"

ANGMAR The Razorblade Redemption (Northern Sound Records) cd 11.98

ANGMAR / ALCEST Aux Funerailles Du Monde / Tristesse Hivernale (Northern Silence) 2lp 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Folks have been chomping at the bit for this one and now it's finally here. A double lp collecting older demo material from French black metal horde Angmar and AQ faves, and current black-metal-bliss darlings Alcest. And after the most recent Alcest full length, the barely metal Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde, and with the first ep being out of print and unavailable, a new Alcest record, even if it's an -old- new record, is enough to get the AQ black metal faithful, all in a frenzy...
Angmar, who we have yet to feature on the AQ list but who we most definitely dig, offer up a handful of demos and rehearsals spanning the years 1998-2003. All the usual adjectives apply, this was long before the band streamlined their sound, so these tracks find the band raw and grim and frosty. Cold buzzing riffage, blast beats and some seriously creepy atmospheres. Every track a relentless burst of black fury, primitive and lo-fi, but all the more intense and blackened for it. The tracks are sprinkled with gorgeous bits of lilting folkiness, short stretches of dark ambience, one whole track of creepy shimmer, a gloomy piano / guitar duet, but it's the blasting buzz that define these guys, and they do it well, burning a black mark on the pale flesh of all that is holy with their beastly racket. Awesome stuff. 
But Alcest is really the reason everyone wants this so bad, and rightfully so. Neige might not be a household name, unless you live with a bunch of black metalheads in France, but it sure should be, and probably will be soon, as Neige is the man behind Alcest, the equally brilliant Ameseours, as well as a member of weirdo black buzzers Peste Noire. The Alcest lp half of this split double, is one sided and features a 2001 demo in its entirety. And for those of you whose only exposure to Alcest is Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde, you just might be shocked to discover that Alcest were indeed a real buzzing black metal outfit at one time. This demo definitely proves it. It also demonstrates, that even way back then, Neige had a melodic flair that could just not bee denied. The insane thing is that all of this music was written when Neige was all of 15 years old. Holy shit. What were we doing at 15? Definitely not composing legendary slabs of grim melodic black metal. But that's precisely what this is, an epic slab of buzzing blackness, run through with irresistible pop melodies, streaks of jangle and shoegazey bliss, but all merely as filigree for a seriously intense black metal buzz. Howled vocals, furious blasting rhythms, jagged black riffs, all woven into long stretches of midtempo moodiness, epic and minor key, and grim grim grim. But amazingly, without ever losing that mysterious melodiousness that would come to define Alcest's constantly evolving sound.
Gorgeously packaged. Super thick, full color deluxe gatefold sleeve, pressed on nice thick vinyl. And extremely limited. ONLY 500 COPIES PRESSED, each record hand numbered on the spine. We got about 30 and it's unlikely we'll be able to get more...

ANGMAR / THE TRUE ENDLESS Unholy Virtues / The Dirty Raw Experience (Bestial Burst) cd 10.98
BACK IN STOCK! Managed to get a few more copies of this back in...
Killer underground black metal battle to the death between the Finns and the Italians, released on Finnish cult metal label Bestial Burst. Angmar, from Finland (not to be confused with the French Angmar, who shared a split with Alcest recently) offer up some fuzzy plodding blackness, dirgey and primitive, ultra lo-fi and buzzy, with simple drumming, and super anguished vocals. A sort of buzzing black thrash with some old school Celtic Frost moments here and there.
The True Endless from Italy counter with their own black blast, some serious buzzing black Mayhem worship. Lightning fast swirls of thick fuzz guitar, manic riffing and blurry blast beats. Two tracks of completely blown out Norwegian style classic blackness, bookending a gorgeously depressive doomic dirge, with sludgy guitars, plodding glacial drumming and howling guttural vocals.
Slightly sexist (sexy?) aside: The True Endless also feature on bass, Soulfucker, quite possibly the hottest corpsepainted lady we've ever seen!
MPEG Stream: ANGMAR "Stone Christ Semen"
MPEG Stream: THE TRUE ENDLESS "Who Stopped The Time?"

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Feels (Fat Cat) cd 15.98
Hey, have the ever-evolving Animal Collective gone all rock'n'roll or what?! The first song on their new album damn near jumps into "Ballroom Blitz" territory. Okay, maybe not quite, but get a load of that feisty drumbeat! Hmmm, art-folk goes glam? Actually the first few songs also brought to mind the rollicking off-kilter pop sounds of Canadian combos Arcade Fire or Hidden Cameras and perhaps a bit of the psych-trippiness of Flaming Lips too. This indeed seems like their most accessible, rousingly pop excursion to date. Later in the album, things settle down briefly into more familiar ephemeral swirls on the song "Bees", but the band soon returns to downright rousing choruses a la Polyphonic Spree taking the good feelings straight through to the closing number "Turn Into Something". If you're already an Animal Collective fan, you won't wanna miss this! If you dig any/all of the bands mentioned above, you just might dig Feels too. We sure do!
MPEG Stream: "Did You See The Words"
MPEG Stream: "Bees"

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Feels (Fat Cat) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yessss, Feels is on vinyl tooooo! Here's what we said about the cd version:
Hey, have the ever-evolving Animal Collective gone all rock'n'roll or what?! The first song on their new album damn near jumps into "Ballroom Blitz" territory. Okay, maybe not quite, but get a load of that feisty drumbeat! Hmmm, art-folk goes glam? Actually the first few songs also brought to mind the rollicking off-kilter pop sounds of Canadian combos Arcade Fire or Hidden Cameras and perhaps a bit of the psych-trippiness of Flaming Lips too. This indeed seems like their most accessible, rousingly pop excursion to date. Later in the album, things settle down briefly into more familiar ephemeral swirls on the song "Bees", but the band soon returns to downright rousing choruses a la Polyphonic Spree taking the good feelings straight through to the closing number "Turn Into Something". If you're already an Animal Collective fan, you won't wanna miss this! If you dig any/all of the bands mentioned above, you just might dig Feels too. We sure do!
MPEG Stream: "Did You See The Words"
MPEG Stream: "Bees"

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Grass (Fat Cat) cdep+dvd 10.98
A special treat for Animal Collective fans! The audio portion of this cd/dvd combo offers up the super buoyant tune "Grass" from their last album Feels, and accompanies it with a more abstract "Fickle Cycle" and a third number titled "Must Be Treeman" which is sorta like an Animal Collective microcosm encapsulating their catchy poppiness and more bizarre musical behavior in one track.
The dvd features videos for "Grass" (European tour footage from last year presented in washed out negative), "Who Could Win A Rabbit" (a 'bad trip' starring humans in fucked-up bunny and turtle costumes), "Fickle Cycle" (the most artsy fartsily layered of the bunch -- footage shot while they were recording, grainy segments of a guy shaking his head furiously, projections on a guy's head wrapped in a sheet, hazy close-ups of an eye and with a soda pop product placement) and another live one of "Lake Damage" from a 2004 tour.
MPEG Stream: "Grass"
MPEG Stream: "Must Be Treeman"

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Here Comes the Indian (Paw Tracks / Carpark) cd 14.98
Who is this gathering called The Animal Collective?
Why it's noneother than these fine artists Geologist, Deaken, and -- perhaps most familiar to AQ customers -- Avey Tare and Panda Bear.
With the help of Carpark Records, they've started up their own label on which this very album appears. Animal Collective throw everything into their sonic cauldron: prog, jazz, techno, noise, krautrock, punk rock and psych -- making for some intriguing ramshackle dissonance. Sometimes you'll get one, sometimes you'll get all at once. Faint melodies barely take shape and drift away. Raw percussive clatterings start and stop. Almost guttural chants and barks materialize to keep time with the rhythms. This is some very 'out-there', unpredictable music... perhaps not for everyone, but we certainly dig it!
MPEG Stream: "Native Belle"
MPEG Stream: "Slippi"

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Hollinndagain (Paw Tracks) cd 14.98
No, friends, this is not the new Animal Collective album, but keep reading... This reissue of live recordings and WFMU radio performances from 2001 made before their first U.S. tour with Black Dice has only ever been available as an ultra limited handmade lp that needless to say has had an expensive afterlife on eBay. So it's nice to see it finally available and affordable. The tracks on Hollindagain, ramshackle pastoral field songs punctuated by pan-rhythmic acoustic guitar strums, echoed hollers, distorted electronics and ecstatic sonic bursts, show AC at their most sublimely primitive. In the 10-minute opener, "I See You Pan", the seemingly random sound of the band shuffling around their gear and setting up slowly develops into a static-y electrical build-up before becoming the backdrop for a slow lyrical-invocation-with-synthesizer that recalls Popol Vuh's Affenstunde reworked by Om. Marked by periods of hushed restraint and pummeling chaotic reverie, Hollindagain documents a raw but fertile period in the development of Animal Collective's unique sound. Fans of AC's early releases, Here Comes The Indian and Dance Manatee, in particular will find lots to like here.
MPEG Stream: "I See You Pan"
MPEG Stream: "Forest Gospel"
MPEG Stream: "Tell It To The Mountain"

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Hollinndagain (Paw Tracks) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
No, friends, this is not the new Animal Collective album, but keep reading... This reissue of live recordings and WFMU radio performances from 2001 made before their first U.S. tour with Black Dice has only ever been available as an ultra limited handmade lp that needless to say has had an expensive afterlife on eBay. So it's nice to see it finally available and affordable. The tracks on Hollindagain, ramshackle pastoral field songs punctuated by pan-rhythmic acoustic guitar strums, echoed hollers, distorted electronics and ecstatic sonic bursts, show AC at their most sublimely primitive. In the 10-minute opener, "I See You Pan", the seemingly random sound of the band shuffling around their gear and setting up slowly develops into a static-y electrical build-up before becoming the backdrop for a slow lyrical-invocation-with-synthesizer that recalls Popol Vuh's Affenstunde reworked by Om. Marked by periods of hushed restraint and pummeling chaotic reverie, Hollindagain documents a raw but fertile period in the development of Animal Collective's unique sound. Fans of AC's early releases, Here Comes The Indian and Dance Manatee, in particular will find lots to like here.
MPEG Stream: "I See You Pan"
MPEG Stream: "Forest Gospel"
MPEG Stream: "Tell It To The Mountain"

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE People (Fat Cat) cd ep 8.98
Last list we had the limited 7" version of this new AC ep, now we've got Fat Cat's pressing of the cd version, originally released by Spunk in Australia only as a tour-item. It's comprised of four songs (two more than the 7"): the title track, "Tikwid" and "My Favorite Colors" as well as a live version of the title track.
MPEG Stream: "People"
MPEG Stream: "Tikwid"

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE People (Nervous Jerk) 7" 8.98
We got a wee bit more from Animal Collective to close out 2006! Or, shall we say, to start 2007. This is their limited edition Australian import 'tour only' release People! There was a cdep version comprised of four songs: the title track, "Tikwid" and "My Favorite Colors" as well as a live version of the title track, but that's already gone (actually, we've got 2 left so we're not even listing it -- however it's gonna come out domestically sometime this winter supposedly). But we do still have maybe a dozen of this 7", which features just the first two tunes. It's a limited pressing of 1000, and we won't be able to get any more... so don't dilly dally!
MPEG Stream: "People"
MPEG Stream: "Tikwid"

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Polly (DMD Booty) 7" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We only got 10 of these, and some have sold already... So quickest draw wins. ULTRA LIMITED white label 7" from everyone's favorite stumbling psychfolk collective. One side is an alternate version of the song "Purple" from Feels, twisted into some weirdly Stevie Wonder like jam. The other side is a damaged cover of Nirvana's "Polly". Cool.

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished / Danse Manatee (Fatcat) 2cd 16.98
As part of their Splinter Series, Fat Cat Records have reissued these two enigmatic albums together as a double album credited to the group known as Animal Collective (aka the artists Avey Tare and Panda Bear, Geologist, and Deaken). Fragments of obscured sounds, glimpsing melodies and rhythms peek from around corners and poke out of the cracks while strange voices murmur, chant and howl from the shadows.
If the first disc's title and songs strike you as familiar, well, it might be because we were raving about it late last year. It was originally released on its own in 2000 under the moniker Avey Tare And Panda Bear. Heck, we like it very much under any name. And the wonderfully titled Danse Manatee (who doesn't love the manatee?), was their just as dandy follow-up, a subtly more fleshed out and vocal heavy album that was limited to 1000 handmade, silkscreened editions.
Here's what we had to say about the former when it was still credited to A.T.A.P.B.:
This debut album... is, well, it's really good! It's an intriguing combination of elements -- a plaintive, weak voice chirping sadly over rapidly strummed yet fractured guitar, which is normal enough but then there's these weirdly muffled, like, jungle beats in the background, so faint you barely even notice that they're there. The tension between the styles happening simultaneiously is carefully handled and forms a satisfying whole. Vocals are tremulous and tinny but somehow appealing, too, like the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne making incredibly emotional dissonant, fuzzed-out bathroom electronica. There are also gentler numbers with moody piano and delicate vocal effects. And some raucous squealing feedback guitar (like a womans wail) over Reichian arpeggiated synths. The overall effect is slightly creepy but mostly just wintry, melancholy and sad. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Chocolate Girl"
MPEG Stream: "Ahhh Good Country"

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Strawberry Jam (Domino) cd 15.98
It'll make no difference what we say about the new Animal Collective record, cuz most folks are gonna buy it anyway, so if you are so inclined, please just ignore us and buy it already! It won't matter to anyone that after a slew of amazing and ingenious releases including Panda Bear's recent sonically narcotic solo album Person Pitch, we found Strawberry Jam to be a bit disappointing and rather unsatisfying. Not that it's necessarily a bad record, but past AC records have always held a hazy balance between the wildly uproarious yelps and hollers of Avey Tare (Dave Portner) and the charged sunshine-pop reverence of Panda Bear (Noah Lennox); a kind of east coast/west coast yin-yang dynamic, which was on full display on AC's last full length, Feels, where the balance was sharply divided in half, with Avey Tare's song's on the first half and Panda Bear's on the second. On Strawberry Jam, that balance is tipped more heavily in Avey Tare's favor, which means it's more aggressively tight, but also relentlessly hyper, and spazzy. There are only a few hints at the looser dronier experimental vibe that Panda Bear usually brings to the table ("#1", "Derek", "Chores"), which is what always made their records great to listen to in the past. To use their title as a metaphor, Strawberry Jam is the main course being served here, rather than a sweet condiment that makes the rest of the meal memorable. Sure it's yummy and makes us deliriously giddy, but it also makes us queasy and bloated soon afterward.
MPEG Stream: "Unsolved Mysteries"
MPEG Stream: "#1"
MPEG Stream: "Derek"